OOIDA reacts to Indiana Toll Road vote

The
Indiana Senate Appropriations Committee voted Thursday, Feb. 23, along party
lines 8-to-4 in favor of a bill that would lease the 157-mile northern Indiana highway for 75 years to a foreign consortium from Spain and Australia for $3.8 billion.

OOIDA
believes the toll road is not the governor’s to sell and that it belongs to the
people of Indiana and to the highway users who have paid for it and continue to
pay for it with their tolls and taxes.

“The
governor is mortgaging the future of the state of Indiana,” says OOIDA
Executive Vice President Todd Spencer, who traveled to Indiana last week to
testify against the bill.

“These
leases sound like a lot of money on the front end, but what about when the
money runs out? What do you put on the auction block next?”

In
addition to highways, the legislation also gives the governor the authority to
lease other transportation infrastructure including river ports and airports.

The bill
passed the Republican-controlled House in a party-line vote and now goes before
the full Republican-dominated Senate. The full Senate could vote as early as
next week on the matter.